476,853 of Sarawak’s 2.08 mln people have not registered for Covid-19 vaccines

Dr Annuar at his livestream on Covid-19 update.

SIBU, May 16; A total of 476,853 of the State’s 2.08 million people have yet to register for Covid-19 vaccinations.

Assistant Minister for Housing and Local Government Dr Annuar Rapaee in his Covid-19 update via Facebook live last night said of the number, 242,340 are in Kuching, Sibu (93,801), Miri (84,542) and Bintulu (56,170).

He, however, said the figure could be much lower as there are those who had registered manually but their application had not being uploaded to the MySejahtera app.

“I urge all village development committee and community leaders to have a campaign to get those who have not registered for the vaccine to do so soonest. Registration is very important because we need to know the data. I will fight so that places that are in hot zones such as Sibu, Bintulu and Miri are given the priority to receive the vaccines,” he said.

Dr Annuar also wanted youth, aged 18 and above, to register for the vaccine.

“There are still youth over 18-years-old who have not registered as they felt that they do not need the vaccine. It must be remembered that the trend of infection now has shifted towards young people,” he pointed out.

The State he said needs to have 70 per cent of its population vaccinated so as to create herd immunity against the coronavirus by August this year.

“Vaccination will help lower our Infectivity Rate (RO) which currently is at a dangerous level of 0.98 against the country RO of 1.14,” he said.

With the Hari Gawai Dayak celebration about two weeks away, Dr Annuar who is also the Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee coordinator urged the public to stay vigilant to ensure that the State’s RO would not reach 1.0.

He also answered queries from the public on the vaccination programme where many people had questioned when it would be their turn.

Sarawak, he said, would be receiving 500,000 doses soon. It was also trying to secure another 500,000 doses of Sinovac.

“Sibu will have its third round of vaccination for senior citizens on May 18 and 19 using Pfizer,” he said.

Responding to a statement by a viewer, he expressed his doubt that vaccines are available at private clinics which had been appointed by the government to do the vaccination. — DayakDaily